Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, the “gallant and good-natured” Marquis of Granby. This General’s name is associated with the Battle of Minden — a battle which ruined Lord George Sackville’s reputation. It is reported that old Ligonier was disinclined to grant to the latter Lord a court-martial in England, and said with gruff wit — If you want a court-martial you may go and seek it in Germany; (so writes Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, 19th September 1759).
I have omitted several notices of ordnance experiments under Ligonier’s auspices. A somewhat eventful one took place nearly three weeks after the accession of George III. “At a proof at Woolwich of the new-invented smoke-balls, one of them burst, whereby Colonel Desaguliers had his arm broke, Lord Howe received a small contusion on his side, Sir George Saville had his ankle torn, Sir William Boothby a finger broke, and Lord Eglinton had his sword broke by his side.”
George II. died in Kensington Palace on the morning of 25th October 1760 in the seventy-seventh year of his age and the thirty-fourth of his reign. Viscount Ligonier sat during that day in the Privy Council at Carlton House, and his signature appears in the Proclamation of the Prince of Wales as King George III. By the young king’s command all the Privy Councillors of the late king were immediately sworn in as members of his own Privy Council. And on the 27th October H.R.H. Edward, Duke of York, and the Right Hon. John Earl of Bute were added to their number. Lord Bute received early notice of the king’s favour for Lord Ligonier, as we may infer from the following letter to the Earl from the veteran Viscount:[1]—
“My Dear Lord, — I am extremely obliged to your Lordship for your kind enquiry. My being confined has hindered me from waiting on you. I find myself much Better, and hope to be able to pay my duty to the King to-morrow, whose Great Goodness and Condescension I have not words to acknowledge. I am thoroughly sensible of your Lordship’s friendship, which I shall endeavour to cultivate and deserve by the heartiness with which I shall ever be, My dear Lord, your most humble and most obedient servant,
“Wednesday.
I may here remark that there were several portraits of Ligonier, both painted and engraved. Speaking of what artists call “effects,” Sir Joshua Reynolds said, “The picture of my own in which the effect pleased me most is Lord Ligonier on horseback, engraved by Fisher; the chiaro-scuro was suggested to me by a rude wood-cut on a half-penny ballad, which I bought from the wall of St. Anne’s Church, in Princes Street.”
Under George III. Lord Ligonier continued to be Commander-in-Chief, Master-General, and Privy Councillor. He had the gratification of obtaining substantial honour to the memory of the Woolwich Professor of Mathematics, the talented Thomas Simpson, F.R.S. “The King at the instances of Lord Ligonier, in consideration of Mr. Simpson’s great merits, was graciously pleased to grant a pension to his widow, together with handsome apartments adjoining to the academy, a favour never conferred on any before.” At the coronation of the King and Queen, 22nd September 1761, “Lord Ligonier, as commanding officer of the guard on duty, had a small tent fixed on the left side of the platform in Old Palace Yard.”
Parliament was allowed to run its septennial course, and a dissolution having taken place in March 1761, Lord Ligonier was, for the third time, returned for Bath; the houses met on the 3rd of November. The octogenarian lord, having no heir, was honoured with a new Irish patent of viscountry, containing a remainder in favour of his nephew. This patent, dated 2nd June 1762, gave him the title of Viscount Ligonier of Clonmell, with remainder “To our trusty and well-beloved Colonel Edward Ligonier, captain of a company in our first regiment of foot-guards.”
In 1763 the viscount retired from the ordnance, and from the House of Commons. On 19th April 1763, the King was pleased to grant to the Right Hon. John Viscount Ligonier of Ireland and his heirs-male, the dignity of a Baron of Great Britain, by the title of Lord Ligonier, Baron of Ripley, in the county of Surrey. His country seat was Cobham Park in Surrey, but the title, Lord Cobham, being pre occupied, he took his English title from an ancient village in his neighbourhood; the chapel of Ripley was founded about the end of the twelfth century. Lord Ligonier was also a Fellow of the Royal Society.
On the 13th August 1766 Viscount Ligonier ceased to be Commander-in-Chief, the claims of the Marquis of Granby to the office admitting, in the opinion of the government, of no longer postponement. Ligonier’s removal was generally regretted. Earl Temple wrote to Mr. Grenville, London, 25th August 1766:— “Lord Bute, who
- ↑ The Musgrave Collection of Autographs, in the British Museum.
